Anne's blog travel 06-07

Thursday April 12th 2007 Byron Bay

The map on the side is just to give you and idea of where Bundeena is in relation to Sydney. If you go to the lower right corner of the map right next to the Sydney's motorways square you will see just next to it a small peninsula with Cronulla written next to it. Well south from there accross the water is another peninsula where you can see an orange road. That's where Bundeena sits at the very tip and it's 30km of National Park to get there. Sydney is pretty much the centre of the map. Sydney CBD is below the water way. The waterway is connected to the north shore by the world famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and also the Sydney City Tunnel.

Had a wonderful time in Bundeena and soon Monday morning came and the time to leave. It was still raining that morning but I didn't leave Bundeena before 10:30am and escaped the rain that morning and indeed for the whole trip up. I met with my friend Deb on the north shore at Willoughgy for Coffee at about 11:45am. Left at 1pm to make my way north. It was of course a public holiday in Australia and the last day of the Easter Holidays so many drivers were making their way back into Sydney. But the way up was uncluttered and easy. You'd have to be crazy to leave Sydney for Easter. Everyone does it and so the roads are a mess if you are going that way. It's school holidays in New South Wales and Queensland for two weeks after Easter or until Monday of the week after next. So some people are still holidaying and by all accounts Australians are big travelers.

Stopped in Raymond Terrace for a bite to eat and a break and it was very obvious that most places were closed for the holidays. I made it up to Taree and past there. The clouds were threatening and I wondered for a moment whether the decision to press on was a sound one. But, I got wet pavement as testament of fresh rain but no rain. I decided to stay in Wauchope (pronounced Wor Hope) for the night electing to travel 10 km inland rather than go to Port Maquarie on the coast. I thought Port would be more crowded for the holidays and it may be harder to find a place to stay. Got off the bike with 430 km behind me for the day.

Wauchope is a small place and indeed there was only one motel, expensive at that, so I'm not sure it was the right decision but so be it. I was happy to get off the bike and relax. The neighbors however had better plans and screamed and shouted and cried all night so my sleep was interrupted to say the least. Was back on the bike at 8:30am and the rest of the day was rain free(after raining that morning before I left). Stopped in Kempsey for breakfast, made it to Grafton for lunch and into Byron by 3:30pm.

I stayed with the owner of the unit in their house above for the night. Moved back in yesterday between boot camp, gym, going to Lismore for a service on the bike, food shopping, emailing, banking, post office, combat class and catching up with a friend for a drink last night. Phew...

Bye for now